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House committee passes new auto insurance plan

By JENNIFER LIBERTO
Published April 24, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - Florida House Republicans offered their first glimpse at how they want to rewrite the state's mandatory automobile insurance laws by pushing a bill through a committee that doesn't normally deal with policy.

The House bill would do away with the current mandated personal injury protection policies that pay $10,000 worth of health care benefits regardless of who is at fault.

In their place would be a new kind of mandatory coverage: $15,000 worth of coverage paid for emergency care or hospital-owned clinics, regardless of who is at fault.

The biggest difference between the systems is that under the House bill, the trigger for coverage would be an emergency room visit.

Currently, any health care claim, from a chiropractor to a physical therapist, can trigger the coverage.

If the Legislature does nothing, the state's mandatory personal injury protection will disappear on Oct. 1, primarily due to concerns about fraud.

A House rules committee passed the bill 10-6 along party lines, with only Democrats opposing it, saying it needed more vetting.

"This is the kind of procedure and bill that insults this process, because to a certain extent, people expect us to have the thoughtfulness to worry about them and worry about what the impact would be on them," said House Minority Leader Dan Gelber.

House Democrats protested that Republicans hadn't given them more notice about the bill or even the meeting, while some hospital associations and health insurance lobbyists acknowledged the bill's sponsor, Republican Whip Ellyn Bogadanoff of Fort Lauderdale, had shown a draft on Saturday.

The new type of hospital-centric coverage would disappear in 2012.

The House bill is different from the Senate automobile insurance plan that would keep the current no-fault system but cap the amount automobile insurers would have to pay in car crashes to no more than 200 percent what an insurer must pay, by law, for Medicare or workers' compensation claims.

The House bill would also create certain types of medical caps on payments, but some caps are far more generous, requiring insurers to pay 75 percent of what a hospital emergency room, doctor or dentist bills.

[Last modified April 24, 2007, 01:44:35]